Year 6 Visit To London – November 2012
Headteacher’s Report
Pupils in year 6 recently enjoyed a fabulous two-day and overnight visit to historic London.
Last November, I was invited to speak to HRH The Prince of Wales at Clarence House inLondonas part of the prestigious ‘Food for Life’ work our school has been involved in over the last five years. As a result of this visit, it was arranged for our school to bring some pupils for a tour of Clarence House and to meet the staff to help pupils aspire to a variety of different careers!
A visit was, therefore, planned for this November coinciding with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall’s tour of Australia and New Zealand.
All year 6 pupils were invited and an overnight stay planned. On Monday 19November, we arrived at HMS Belfast which is a battle ship moored as a museum on the River Thames adjacent to TowerBridge. Pupils enjoyed the London sights walking past The Tower of London and across TowerBridge. We marvelled at the mechanisms which could raise such a structure in order to allow tall ships to pass. Year 6 pupils who have been studying the war years enjoyed their four hours exploring the battle ship where they also spoke to seamen with combat experience as well as seeing the cramped conditions for sleeping and the incredible gun power of the ship!
Later we ate at Planet Hollywood and then went on a sight seeing tour of London by foot at night. We saw Big Ben, The London Eye and Trafalgar Square illuminated. Eventually the 40 pupils retired to a London hotel for the night. Members of the public praised our pupils’ behaviour at breakfast and asked where we were going. Imagine their surprise when were able to say we are ‘invited to Clarence House!’
Our group split into two with some visiting Churchill War Museum and Natural History Museum – both of which they report were fabulous. I accompanied 25 pupils to Clarence House, by invitation of HRH Private Secretary, Leslie Chappell. A very interesting day had been arranged where we were to hear about the roles of different staff to help pupils aspire to a variety of careers.
Captain Charles Fraser-Sampson detailed the link and role of the armed forces and the Royal family. Pupils tried on uniforms and looked at medals. Captain Fraser-Sampson was kind enough to arrive in his best dress uniform and pupils were impressed and very interested.
We met The Sergeant of the Chapel Royal, David Baldwin. We were privileged to see Frankincense and Myrrh and look at an original Tudor book with an entry by Queen Elizabeth I, discussing the Spanish Armada! Pupils sat where the Royal family sit to worship and we were read passages out of King James Bible used for Windsor family worship.
We spent time in the garden at Clarence House, meeting the head gardener and discussing organic gardening – our children were very knowledgeable in this area and told the head gardener about our bottle greenhouse at school. The under butler showed children how to fold napkins into fancy shapes such as water lilies and bishops hats. Domestic staff described cleaning process for silver and showed us many priceless items – the children were in awe!
Prince Charles’ chef cooked us lunch and it was served in the staff dining room. We then met members of the correspondence and finance teams, all of whom had prepared games, talks and interesting accounts for our pupils. These we listened to in the Clarence House cinema room!
Finally we had a tour of the state dining room, looked at furniture, pictures (collected by The Queen Mother) and Royal ornaments. Sir Leslie Chappell explained the history of items and gracefully answered ALL the children’s’ questions.
Clarence House staff had prepared a goody bag for all the children and we left having had a wonderful and very special experience. The Oval pupils learned a lot and appreciated the many different tasks behind the Royal household as well as helping inspiring pupils for the future. A truly magical experience!
Our thanks and gratitude goes to HRH Prince Charles and Camilla for their invitation and to Sir Leslie Chappell for the extremely well organized day.